Creating a panel with multiple canvasses on it, in complementary colors

Question

    public Dancefloor(Dimension patches, int size, Color color)
        //create JPanel
        super();
        backgroundColor = color;
        numberOfPatches = patches;
        patchSize = size;
        //set Size of Dancefloor, make a conversion because the returned type isn't int but double and the setSize
        //function is only able to handle int
        setSize((new Double( numberOfPatches.getWidth() * patchSize) ).intValue(),
        (new Double( numberOfPatches.getHeight() * patchSize) ).intValue() );
        //set bacground color of the panel
        setBackground(backgroundColor);
        //create a number of patches, as submitted to the constructor(at the moment as Canvas)
        //Create a for loop which will be looped as much times as the number of patches
        for(int d = 0; d < new Double(numberOfPatches.getWidth() * numberOfPatches.getHeight()).intValue(); d++)
            //create a new canvas and set a background for it
            patch = new Canvas[new Double(numberOfPatches.getWidth() * numberOfPatches.getHeight()).intValue()];
            patch[d] = new Canvas();
            patch[d].setBackground(backgroundColor);
            //set another background for the patches that are not even, but have an odd number
            if(d % 2 != 0)
                float[] colorHSB = color.RGBtoHSB(color.getRed(), color.getGreen(), color.getBlue(), null);
                colorHSB[0] += 0.5;
                if(colorHSB[0] > 1) {
                    colorHSB[0] -= 1;
                patch[d].setBackground(new Color(Color.HSBtoRGB(colorHSB[0], colorHSB[1], colorHSB[2])));
    }Above is the code of the constructor of my class called Dancefloor, it attempts to create a panel(the 'dancefloor') with multiple canvasses('patches') on it. The even patches should have the color specified in the constructor, the others should have a complementary color as background. this is done using the last if-statement.
When executing however, all patches have the color specified in the constructur and so you all you can see is a panel with a background instead of a panel with a patchwork of 2 different color canvasses on it
I hope this explanation was pretty clear, I hope someone is able to help me out
thomas

Answer 1

i would suggest if you are going to use a JPanel, simply create an array of Rectangles that represent all of your patches. Then override the paintComponent(Graphics g) method of the JPanel to and use the fillRect(int x, int y, int width, int height) method from the graphics class to draw all of your rectangles something like this
JPanel floor = new JPanel() {
     public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
          super.paintComponent(g);
          for (int j = 0; j < myRectangles.length; j++){
                g.setColor(whateverColor)
                g.fillRect(myRectangles[j].x, myRectangles[j].y,
                                 myRectangle[j].height, myRectangles[j].width);
}btw, you can use the field values width and height from Dimension class to retrieve an int value, insted of using getWidth() and getHeight just call myDimension.height or myDimension.width